Obama Declares Swine Flu a National Emergency

[Cherybaby]

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama declared the swine flu outbreak a national emergency and empowered his health secretary to suspend federal requirements and speed treatment for thousands of infected people.

The declaration that Obama signed late Friday authorized Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to bypass federal rules so health officials can respond more quickly to the outbreak, which has killed more than 1,000 people in the United States.

The goal is to remove bureaucratic roadblocks and make it easier for sick people to seek treatment and medical providers to provide it immediately. That could mean fewer hurdles involving Medicare, Medicaid or health privacy regulations.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091024/ap_on_he_me/us_obama_swine_flu

[Charity, RN, APRN]

Does anybody know how we are differentiating between H1N1 and the "regular" flu? If they have stopping doing confirmatory tests, do they do a prelim that can tell what kind? I seem to remember a friend whose daughter had it. They told her they could not give her an official diagnosis with the test they did, but that it was the same class (or something) as the H1N1, which differs from the current "regular" one going around. Do the symptoms differ?

[HonestRN]

Does anybody know how we are differentiating between H1N1 and the "regular" flu? If they have stopping doing confirmatory tests, do they do a prelim that can tell what kind? I seem to remember a friend whose daughter had it. They told her they could not give her an official diagnosis with the test they did, but that it was the same class (or something) as the H1N1, which differs from the current "regular" one going around. Do the symptoms differ?

They have not completely stopped doing confirmatory tests. Hospitalized patients and those presenting to sentinel reporting hospitals are having the rRT-PCR to confirm H1N1. Dr's offices and some hospitals are using the rapid influenza tests but the CDC recognizes that these tests have a high rate of false negatives (10-70% accurate) and they may or may not be able to distinguish between type A or B influenza and they certainly cannot subtype if it is H1N1. Clinicians therfore are advised to treat empirically bazed on the constellation of symptoms.

Rapid influenza diagnostic tests (RIDTs) are widely available but have variable sensitivity3 (range 10 - 70%) for detecting 2009 H1N1 influenza when compared with real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR), and a negative RIDT result does not rule out influenza virus infection4 . RIDTs have a high specificity5 (>95%6). Depending on which commercially available RIDT is used,the test can either i) detect and distinguish between influenza A and B viruses; or ii) detect both influenza A and B but not distinguish between influenza A and B viruses. More information on sensitivity, specificity and interpretation of RIDT results can be found athttp://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/guidance/rapid_testing.htm.

http://cdc.gov/h1n1flu/guidance/diagnostic_tests.htm

As of October 17, 2009:

All subtyped influenza A viruses being reported to CDC were 2009 influenza A (H1N1) viruses.

http://cdc.gov/flu/weekly/

[cardinalle]

Our urgent care center is overwhelmed with the number of patients coming in with flu-like symptoms. We have been averaging 3 hour waits to be seen for the last 2 weeks. What has changed in the federal guidelines that will help us get these patients through more quickly? We had to reduce our staff earlier this year d/t the economic climate and are now totally in over our heads with no help available.